Know Your Boundaries

November 21, 2016

Territory management is a vital part of any business. Without a proper strategy, you will be risking low sales, high financial waste, and eventually, put your business in jeopardy. However, by taking the following tips into consideration, any company can draw up a practical plan for success.

1. Draw Boundaries That Work For You

To properly create a territory management strategy, you’ll need to think about the unique situation of your business- unfortunately, no blanket solution will work for everyone. You’ll want to ensure that your employees spend as much time as possible in front of customers, making sales, instead of always driving long distances. There are lots of options when it comes to deciding on boundaries- whether that’s area codes, products, or a select group of customers.

2. Prioritize

Once you’ve drawn up the territories themselves, you’ll need to consider just how you deal with customers within each one. Some may only need contact every so often, and an email or phone call might do. Others will need more frequent, face-to-face contact; make sure that you fit time in for these, or you’ll lose out in the long run. New leads should take the same approach, two smaller sales might be easier to make, but without bigger sales, you won’t do much more than stay afloat.

Your company already has sales data to incorporate into your prioritizing plan. By inputting that data into a visual map and overlaying onto current territories, you can quickly make business decisions on what and how to prioritize workflow and sales efforts.

3. Keep the Big Picture in Mind

Especially when you are dealing with one customer at a time, it can be very tempting to fall into a “to-do list” mindset- only thinking one or two steps ahead, and following leads as and when they turn up. However, this kind of view can damage your business, as it prevents you from growing, and could even see your territory fall into the hands of a competitor. For that reason, you should ensure that you and your employees are acutely aware of your long-term business strategy at all times, and carefully consider whether or not that particular lead is worth prioritizing over other, more significant commitments.

4. Never Stop Reassessing Your Boundaries

Even if you have put a successful territory management plan into practice, that’s not to say that it will last forever. If individual customers end their relationship with you, or if lucrative new ones crop up, then your existing strategy will need a little tweaking. You don’t need to do this on a weekly basis, but looking at your boundaries with a fresh set of eyes every six months or so will ensure that you stay on the right track.

Planning out territories can be a lucrative task for management considering all these variables combined with current forecasting and real sales data. Guessing at territories or basing it on just one item will not allow a company to organically grow to the level desired.

For more information about territory planning and boundaries, contact us at GeoMetrx.